Corporate Stress Solutions: Case Studies: Single Mother's Stress

Corporate Stress Solutions: Case Studies: Single Mother's Stress

Long-term plan eliminates recurring hospitalization

A single mother of three young children, who herself had been abandoned and abused as a teenager, Janine was struggling simultaneously with the effects of all three types of stress: chronic, acute and episodic. It was not unusual for her to require psychiatric hospitalization around the first of the year. Christmas, New Year’s and child-care problems during school vacation would compound all the normal stress in her life, and an incapacitating depression would settle over her like a thick fog.

At the hospital, where she could rest and be relieved of her immediate demands and pressures, Janine’s natural restorative processes took over. As her energy came back, she would talk about her early traumas and current difficulties. Her depression would slowly lift. After about six weeks or so, and on heavy antidepressants, she would be back at home.

Janine took the Stress Navigator Workshop in her outpatient therapist’s office following her last hospitalization. The Stress Navigator helped her understand her sources and symptoms of stress, and which areas she should address first. She and her therapist mapped out a long-term action plan for her depression and chronic stress problems.

The key was to follow the guidelines of the Stress Navigator Workshop and handle her acute stress first, the nuts and bolts of working and managing a home with three children. By handling her acute stress first, Janine realized she could do something about it. It’s the easiest type of stress to handle, and taking action gave her the time, energy and knowledge to address her other episodic and chronic stress issues.

The best news is that Janine hasn’t seen the inside of a hospital since she began her long-term program. Her therapist thinks the Stress Navigator Workshop showed them how to make a dent in the overwhelming stresses Janine had been dealing with for a long time.

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